St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-11-03
MISCELLANY.
A QUEER BARGAIN.

machines, a-layin' out the new track
we were all nightly exercised about
it. Some took one view and some
another. Some were pleased and said
il would work up market to us and
increase the vally o. land whilst 9TH
ers allowed that the farms would be
ruined, the wheat fields set afire, the
cattle run over and killed, and the
noise itself be an abidin' noosanee.
tell you some of 'em was real mad,
but the maddest of the hull lot was on
deniably Betsey Ann Simcoe.
She was "a single unmarried woman,
about 40 or more, and lived on a pool
little place of her own, just above the
Cross Keys tavern.
Twas only two or three acres OF
gravelled land, with two-rOOm frame
house on it. FOlksisaid she had a lit
tie money hid away somewhere, for she
was powerful sharp at making bar
gains, and held a tight grip on all she
got hold of but all the same she made
great talk about poverty, as an ex-
cuse for not giving more to the mis-
siOnary society and for repairs to the
meeting house.
Still she seemed to get along's well
as any body with her garden, and her
COW, and her poultry, and the little
gal she'd prenticed from the city poor
house to help with the chores.
She WASN'T a bad tempered woman
in general, but tell you she was nigh
ty riled up the day the railroad folks
come to her house and told her they
was surveyin' the track, and that it
would hev to run right straight through
her house.
She rared up then and lowed the
property was hers and nobody had a
right to so much as set foot on it
without her consent. They were civil
enough, and explained, and said they
was willing to pay double the vally of
the property for the privilege of run
ming the road through.
She wouldn't hear it, but out o.
sheer cOntrariness refused every offer,
though anybody could see that her
mouth watered at the very mention of
the money.
She said she'd never give up her
home, and if they run their injine
through the house 'twOuld be over her
mangled body. And she wound up by
threatening if they didn't quit in a
short time, she'd have them arrested
for trespass on her premises.
Well, next day she went down to
Hobbs HOller to see her cousin, Lucin-
dy Parks, and talk over the railroad
business. Lucindy and the rest tried
to convince her that she'd get the best
of the bargain by letting the railroad
company have the land but she lowed
she'd not be turned out o. doors to
'cOmmOdate passed. o. sassy menfolks
that cared for nothing but their own
good. She stayed two days at Lncin-
dy's, and then went back to her own
house at Cross-Keys. Leastways, she
went to where she'd left her house
standing, and when she came in sight
of it, twas gone, and nOtlfin' of it left
but lot of burnt wood and ashes.
Then there was row! Betsey Ann
accused the railroad folks of burning
her house, and threatened to prosecute
'em by the law. They lowed they
could prove by the neighbors that it
had been done accidentally by a passed.
o. tramps who camped on the place the
night she was away, and made fire
in the wOOdshed to roast some of her
chickens for supper. When the chips
and wood caught and set fire in the
house, they'd 60 skeered and made
sHOTG GIdChS Out u CTOSS-hoyS. DcCSy
Ann was convinced the railroad folks
knew more about these tramps than
they chose to let on. But she didn't
say much only dropped little hint
that she'd be even with them bimeby.
They offered to build her another
house if she'd give up the land. She
said she'd consider of it and let 'em
know. Purity soon they come to an
agreement, by which, besides paying
well for the land, they was to build her
a two-stOry, four room frame house,
and likewise allow her to travel free
on the road for the rest of her life,
whenever she wanted to, with a female
companion along.
At first they objected to the cOmpan-
ion but when she explained that she
was a lone woman, and couldn't think
of exposing herself to the attentions of
strange men by travelling unprotected,
they LATED, and agreed to put i'll that
along with the rest, which
was done, and the papers made out
and signed and sealed according to
law. You see, they'd hearn the neigh
bOrs laffing at the idear of Miss SimcOe
ever travelin' on the railroads.&c. had
skeercely been farther from home than
Hobbs Holler or Bowling Green meet
in house in all her life, and was most
afeared to trust herself out o. sight of
her own house.
Well, the company kept their word,
and run up a twO-stOry, four room
frame house for Betsey Ann-sech as it
was. She declared twas nothing bet
ter than a shanty, that wouldn't keep
out the summers heat nor the winters
cold, and was liable to blow away by
the first high wind that came along.
The company said they hadn't stipulat-
ed for the exact way the house was to
be built, and they'd done the best they
could afford to do, and she ought to be
She shut up then, but sot
her jaw in way she had of her own
when she'd made up her mind to some
hing she didn't choose to talk about
est yet.
At last the road was finished, and
)ne day everybody turned out to see
The injine, for the fust time, come tear
n and schreechin' up to CrOss-Keys.
3etsey Ann SiDcoe, she stood on the
,ank and looked on with a kind o.
smile of triumph, for all tue worlds if
he hull concern belonged to her.
Every time the train passed she come
,ut to look at it, till she got used to
eeing it and hearing it's unearthly
loise. And then one day she tuck her
title white help along, and got aboard
he cars, and rode up to the next sta 1
ion, as she said, to see how it felt and {
low she liked it. Next week she went
gin as fur as Cloverdale, and little
While after made another trip, long
With her cousin, Lucindy Parks, clear
Ip to the city.
Purity soon she got to be known by
IL the railroad folks along the Zine, s